Morning sickness.

The car starts but is unhappy first thing in the morning. It is clearly unwilling to accept a throttle opening for a couple of minutes and needs a bit of blipping to clear it's throat. Later in the day, it will be fine. Start idle 1500 dropping to 800 as it warms. That tends to rule out the temperature sender. Overall the engine is smooth and the air is not damp so although new plug leads are on order, I don't think that is the cause either. It appears to be a lack of fuel but the spluttery misfiring indicates otherwise. Assuming a sound and full set of manifold pipes, I' m torn between the idle control valve being sticky and the throttle pot losing its setting.

It is also a sign of water entering a cylinder through a failing inlet manifold gasket, often no 4 cylinder.Does your car have the plastic inlet manifold ? These are notorious for deforming, leading to leaks.
This is the mess I found on mine. I was investigating the very symptoms you describe.

Sometimes it just needs a new gasket.

But I replaced the manifold with an alloy one off a TF135.

VVC so all alloy. I did wonder about that one but I took a good look this evening and.... Gotcha!

Apart from learning that the rubber thing I threw away last week was just like the one that fits on the bootlid hinge, the damp trail revealed a leak from the fuel filter union. I expect it was leaking down overnight and preventing the engine from pressurising the fuel system properly. A quick tweak with a spanner and I hope it will all be better on Friday morning when I use it next. I have a run to Suffolk to do and my sister wants to get her hands on the F so a 400 mile run is on the cards for the weekend.

I'm driving from Yorkshire to Suffolk tomorrow (red TF). Keep an eye out for me......

Safe journey Neil.

Car working fine. No spluttering, no hesitation, no kangarooing. Source of problem was fuel draining back to the tank allowing air into the filter.

But like all cured problems, it came back three weeks later and got progressively worse.
Water level fine. Doesn't lose a drop and remains blue/green. Heater works as per spec.
Oil level likewise. Remains honey coloured.
Nevertheless, I opted to do an exhaust gas test and the liquid remained blue so the head and its gasket are mercifully sound for now.
Decided to change the plug leads and have a look at the candles which were all fine and at the wide end of their gaps light pink deposits running fractionally lean as would be expected on a VVC. It is a lean burn engine. The end of the pipe connecting the cam cover to the inlet manifold was perished and had a small split. Certainly the sort of minor defect that could reasonably be expected to cause the symptoms. Smothered it with some military grade RTV and pulled the split tight with a ty-rap for now. Car then started and ran just fine so I shall use it next week and see if the problem has gone for good, or at least until I have to pull the bloody cover off again to replace the split hose...
Which was £7 from MGLR spares plus £15.99 shipping to Poole from Sunbury on Thames. They got an e mail telling them to go F themselves.
Fortunately there are other suppliers.

They responded by saying that this was the standard shipping from Turkey. I didn't realise there was a Sunbury on Thames in Turkey so these people are clearly to be avoided. Caveat Emptor!

Well, it didn't cure the issue. I spent some time thinking this through. It isn't ignition. The engine doesn't misfire. It is a minor fuel starvation early in the day. Later in the day it is fine. I tried setting the clock forwards three hours but it ended up too advanced so I reasoned it could not be the MAP sensor as the Garmin gave the same answers as Google Maps but it could be the intake air temperature sensor. Engine slightly lean according to the plugs and fine after ten minutes. Test: warm car for five minutes, fifteen minutes before departure tomorrow morning. If the manifold picks up some heat soak, it should run better if the sensor is reading a bit off.

At six thirty this morning, I started the car and let it idle for four minutes before switching off. At ten to seven I set off for work as usual and the car performed perfectly. That seems to support the hypothesis so I shall change the
IAT sensor and see how it behaves.